The excitement is palpable. More and more people are realising that this social media pastime  – concocted with algorithms, "likes", airbrushed faces, and push notifications – may be great fun, but it is addictive and produces unpleasant side effects in the long run. Just like in the song by Udo Jürgens in the 1990s. Back then, it was all about the ‘rush on the cake buffet’, ‘Black Forest cake and cream – meringue’, about elderly gossips in the patisserie who fall victim to their insatiable craving for whipped cream: ‘The end of the story – as everyone probably suspected – was that death skimmed the cream off them’.

Today’s ‘cream’ is, for example, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and the unease amongst some of the ‘pastry chefs’ has been palpable for some time. As early as March, Meta was fined 375 million US dollar by the US state of New Mexico ‘for failing to protect children on its platforms’. Faced with the threat of numerous further convictions and a fine of 200 billion US dollar, Meta’s managers were probably relieved to have reached a settlement in late August in the legal dispute with 29 US states: an 18 billion US dollar fine and a series of conditions designed to ensure that the ‘cream’ is made a little less addictive. In future, children under the age of 13 will no longer have access to the platforms. For 13- to 17-year-olds, usage will be limited to two hours a day.¹

Is that enough to curb the immense appeal of the digital cake buffet? Hans Breiter from the University of Cincinnati has serious doubts. In the August issue of the journal 'Nature', he published a study demonstrating that intensive social media use causes psychological harm and depression: "Social networks have a significant negative effect because they are linked to depression, just as driving is linked to pollution and accidents."² However, he argues that the social pressure and addictive nature are so great that only a minimum age – as with a driving licence – and intensive, early education will make a difference.

The concern is now also evident amongst teachers and in education ministries. At first glance, there appears to be no connection between concerns about social media and concerns about learning outcomes. In this case, it has been triggered by the publication of the latest PISA study, which was carried out in 2025 involving 760'00 15-year-old pupils in 91 countries. The result: "Academic performance declined overall across OECD countries, with the lowest average scores ever recorded in science, reading and mathematics."³ Above all, this has caused a stir in those European countries that performed particularly poorly: "A disaster", "the worst crisis in education", were the headlines in the Nordic countries.⁴ "An earthquake for our country, which is heading towards intellectual decadence", was the reaction in France.⁵ "The results of the PISA study for Germany are alarming," said Hesse’s Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs⁶, whilst in Switzerland, where the results are somewhat better by comparison, a major Swiss newspaper notes: "A quarter of Swiss children suffer from reading difficulties".⁷

"Nothing is more important than reshaping schools – schools that enable education and emancipation,"⁸– everyone agrees with this statement by the French presidential candidate Gabriel Attal. But how do we achieve this, as parents and teachers? Opinions on this vary widely, and once again we hear the familiar refrain that more standardised tests, more school hours, stricter supervision, and earlier academic learning would lead to higher levels of education. In this regard, the French politician Bruno Le Maire has taken the biscuit: he is calling for compulsory schooling from the age of one.⁹

The authors of the PISA study take a different view, and the conclusion of their report reads more like an endorsement of what is being attempted in Waldorf kindergartens and schools: it "…requires […] more than just solid academic knowledge. As lifelong learning, and the expansion and reorientation of one’s own skills become increasingly important, pupils need the motivation, initiative and learning strategies that enable them to take charge of their own learning throughout their lives."¹⁰

As an early childhood educator in a Waldorf nursery and kindergarten, I try to provide the children with a suitable space, nourishing materials, and an appropriate structure of time, within which they can develop their own activities and learning initiatives through free play. Over the course of two or three years, I help them realise that the world is waiting for their initiatives – in learning and in doing – and that they do not have to wait for these to be dictated to them from outside. As playing with a wide variety of materials is not accompanied by theoretical explanations, the experiences one can have with the materials and nature are emotionally profound, because they are self-initiated and not trivialised by intellectual analysis. This forms a foundation of deep, joyful experiences on which teachers can build during the years of school through formal learning.

Learning in Waldorf schools, too, challenges the children’s own initiative. The children themselves make the workbooks: first they draw and write, then they read; first they build a house, then they reflect on how they did it; first they explore and measure, then they draw the map and understand it. The teacher explains and describes botanical, zoological and geographical relationships, and expects the children to visualise these for themselves. The effort, which was previously physical, now becomes mental. And one can connect much more deeply with what is subsequently discovered on field trips or through visual aids at school, because one has already made an effort beforehand to create an inner picture. The fact that teachers are not responsible for a different group of children every year, but can build long-term relationships with children and parents, is welcomed as another observation by the PISA authors: ‘Close relationships with families and teachers also play a crucial role in fostering both engagement and academic achievement.’¹¹

In a response by a German teachers’ union to the PISA studies, a pedagogical phenomenon is described which Waldorf schools attempt to address through what is termed ‘block teaching’, or ‘thematic learning’. "What we have to painstakingly teach our pupils and, incidentally, ourselves as adults once again – is how to slow down and engage deeply with a subject, because that is the only way we learn."¹²

Now we come back to Udo Juergens story with the whipped cream: sugar and fat, which provide instant pleasure, and an energy boost without any further digestive effort. Social media, but also other digital platforms, are much the same: images, ideas, information, relationships, and intense emotions – all without any effort on our part and, initially, generating a great deal of desire. We simply get out of the habit of making the effort to read, understand, learn and express ourselves. Anthroposophical and other authors have been writing shelves of books on this subject, ever since Udo Jürgens’s day. But it is only now that a sense of alarm is becoming palpable. The Drug commissioner of the German government says: "How much scientific evidence do we actually still need before we take action?"¹³ And "Le Monde" writes in an editorial: "Good performance in the natural sciences is linked to less use of AI and a consciously measured approach to digital devices."¹⁴

Whipped cream shouldn’t be banned, but it should be consumed in moderation. For education and culture, a great deal depends on whether we can ‘use digital programmes in moderation’. 

PS: The Education Section is organising a World Teachers’ Conference on this topic from 30 March to 3 April 2027: "For Learning and for Work"¹⁵

Philipp Reubke

English translation: Trevor Mepham